BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Rebellion and Slavery in Sixteenth-Century Spain: Intellectual Res ponses to a Moral Dilemma - Daniel Alleman DTSTART:20171107T203000Z DTEND:20171107T210000Z UID:TALK74121@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Alisa Molotova DESCRIPTION:The Spanish scholastic university theologians of the sixteenth century penned extensive treatises on justice and right. They were writin g at a time of major religious\, social\, and political transformations th at fundamentally shaped their theories. The Spanish theologians participat ed in the debate about the justice of the Spanish conquest of the New Worl d. In a controversy against contemporary humanists\, they rejected the ide a that American Indians were ‘slaves by nature’ and could therefore ju stly be dominated by the Spaniards. This is the (very) well-known story.\n \nBut in fact\, slavery was not just an issue in the peripheries of the em pire\, and neither was it tied to an anthropological conception of the so- called ‘barbarians.’ In the second half of the sixteenth century\, sla very became central to the scholastic discourse as an issue concerning pol itical authority in a decidedly local setting. The Moriscos\, the formerly Muslim converts of Granada\, began to revolt against the Spanish authorit ies when the new king no longer tolerated their cultural and religious pra ctices. But their uprising was suppressed\, and a large number of Moriscos were enslaved. From the theological point of view\, this constituted a pr oblematic tension. On the one hand\, nobody doubted that it was just to pu nish the rebels for their disobedience. But at the same time\, the Spanish theologians unanimously agreed that the legal punishment of slavery had b een abolished in the Christian commonwelath. It was impossible for the Cat holic monarch to drive his own people into servitude. How\, then\, could r eality and theory be reconciled? If you’re interested in the answer\, co me to the MCR-SCR talks on the 7 November!\n LOCATION:3&\;4 Finella (near Harvey Ct) END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR